The United States and Japan will step up their defence cooperation to deal with the threat from nuclear-armed North Korea as tensions in East Asia remain high, officials from the two allies said on Thursday.

Day 8 of West Australian election campaign

* Premier Colin Barnett campaigned in the northern suburbs electorate of Balcatta, a Liberal-held seat by 7.1 per cent and key election battleground

* Opposition Leader Mark McGowan was in Darling Range, held by the Liberals by a margin of 13.1 per cent

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE DAY

* Liberal Premier Colin Barnett committed $60 million to Balcatta Senior High School, outdoing Labor's $50 million upgrade to the school

* Labor outlined Metronet plans for the southern suburbs, a $291m Armadale line extension and a $474m extension between Thornlie and Cockburn, and listed schools Liberals failed to redevelop despite announcing to

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* Mr McGowan said he'd ask the AFL for a contribution to Perth Stadium if he became premier

* Labor said they would assess each One Nation candidate before deciding where to put them on how-to-vote cards, suggesting they might not be last

* Treasurer Mike Nahan said he'd resign if the mining tax went ahead, prompting shadow treasurer Ben Wyatt to also say he'd quit if Labor won the election and didn't build an outer harbour at Kwinana

* The Greens announced a policy to install battery storage in 120,000 WA homes within five years

* WA's Chamber of Minerals and Energy said it spent about $2 million on a media campaign against WA Nationals leader Brendon Grylls' new mining tax

QUOTES OF THE DAY

* "I give you a guarantee. If ... we do form a coalition government with the Nats and that party puts together a Brendon Grylls mining tax, I will resign from the Treasury." - Mike Nahan

* "We don't know the qualities they'll possess but you can imagine there might be some candidates that are completely off the planet and you might want to put them last." - Mark McGowan rules out a preference deal with One Nation

"Have they? They move around don't they? I am not preoccupied with One Nation, this is a contest between the Liberal Party and the Labor Party. Yes in the upper house seats preferences will probably play a role" - Colin Barnett discovers that Labor has ruled out a preference deal with a resurgent One Nation but avoids saying what the Liberals will do

WHAT'S ON TOMORROW?

* WA residents must enrol to vote before the electoral roll closes at 6pm.